Amos vs. the Admiral.

Defense One has an "editorial opinion piece" written by Amos.  The funny thing is that he practically goes head up against the Vice Chairman of the JCS in his thinking.  Consider this a dueling quote post....

General Amos.

Tomorrow’s Marines will see challenges such as violent extremism, battles for influence, disruptive societal transitions, natural disaster, extremist messages and manipulative politics.  We will likely see criminal enterprises wield combat power once associated only with states, as well as separatism, extremism and intolerance that lead to terrorism, protests and violence. We will see new technologies place modern weapons into the hands of developing states and non-state actors while the development and proliferation of advanced conventional weapons challenges our ability to project power or gain access. In this security convergence it will be the forward influence, strategic mobility, effective power projection and rapid response capabilities

VCJCS Winefeld.

As for counterinsurgency, Adm. Winnefeld said “we are more likely to see a Desert Storm type of operation, ejecting a nation that has invaded an ally or a friend of the United States, than we are to see another decade-long counterinsurgency campaign.”
“I simply don’t know where the security interests of our nation are threatened enough to cause us to lead a future major, extended COIN campaign,” he continued, “though we very well might provide support to a nation fighting its own COIN campaign, as we continue to do today in Colombia.” (Note that supporting Afghan security forces, whether today or post-2014, was not his example of choice). “The president himself made it clear inhis Defense Strategic Guidance that we will retain some capability for COIN, but only on a limited scale.”

Long story short?  Well I can't make it short but I will say this.  I don't know how Amos got so infatuated with COIN type operations but he's bought into the concept whole hog.

The Vice Chairman?  Not so much.  Quite honestly, not at all.

And that is the biggest issue facing us when we build our Marine Corps for the future.  Our current leadership sees COIN as the end all, be all mission.  He is a part of the COIN mafia.  But others (myself included) don't think so and if anything see it as a minor role in our mission tool box.

Now we know why the AAV replacement is so low on Amos' to do list.  He doesn't think its necessary because we're going to be doing the MARSOC thing into the future.

Many Marines will die because of his error in thinking.  I just hope he lives long enough to see how wrong he is.